Retired Aurora police sergeant charged with sex crimes against children

A retired police sergeant who gained national attention for his actions during the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting is now facing child sex abuse charges in Douglas County after several children testified he sexually and physically abused them for years.

Michael Hawkins, 55, was charged on July 29 with six counts of sexual abuse of a child by a person in a position of trust and one count of child abuse in alleged incidents that spanned the period from 2002 to 2021, court records show.

He is accused of raping an elementary school-aged girl, groping several children, using “arrest control tactics” that caused them physical injuries and, in one case, holding a boy underwater until he nearly drowned, according to an affidavit against him.

The Denver Post is not naming any victims of sexual abuse or disclosing how Hawkins came into contact with the children in order to protect their privacy. The abuse is not believed to have occurred while Hawkins was on duty as an officer with the Aurora Police Department.

Hawkins “strongly denies the allegations,” his lawyer Christopher Estoll said Tuesday.

“Mr. Hawkins has cooperated and communicated with prosecutors throughout the investigation, but he vehemently denies the allegations,” Estoll said. “The trial will provide him with the opportunity to provide further information regarding these allegations in the future.”

Estoll declined further comment but wrote in an Aug. 1 court document that at least one of the accusers was “not a credible witness and is highly manipulative.”

“Mr. Hawkins is presumed innocent and should not be preemptively punished by incarceration,” Estoll wrote in the brief, requesting personal bail for Hawkins. A judge granted bail of $50,000.

The brief also states that the criminal investigation began in 2022, but charges were not filed until July, and that Hawkins has no criminal record. He poses no threat to public safety, Estoll wrote.

A spokesman for the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office, Eric Ross, said Tuesday that at the time of the first affidavit against Hawkins in 2022, prosecutors did not believe they could prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, but that changed as a result of further investigation.

“When we had everything we needed and felt we had a case, charges were formally filed,” he said.

The allegations relate to Hawkins' tenure with the Aurora Police Department between 2005 and 2018, and several witnesses and victims told investigators that Hawkins' job as a police officer influenced his behavior.

The former police sergeant suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after responding to the 2012 mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that killed 12 people and injured 70, according to an affidavit against him. He gained national attention in the wake of that attack when he testified during the shooter's jury trial that he carried a dying 6-year-old girl out of the theater that night.

The rape of the elementary school-aged girl is believed to have occurred around 2012, but court records do not indicate whether it occurred before or after the movie theater shooting. A person interviewed by police said Hawkins “claimed all of his problems were related to the movie theater shooting,” but in reality, “many of the problems existed beforehand,” according to the affidavit.